Following its ratification by the requisite three-fourths of the states, the 15th Amendment, granting African-American men the right to vote, is formally
adopted into the U.S. Constitution. Passed by Congress the year before, the amendment reads, “the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not
be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of
race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” The next day after it was
adopted, Thomas Peterson-Mundy of Perth Amboy, New Jersey (below),
became the first African American to vote under the authority of the 15th Amendment.

Thomas Mundy Peterson
(October 6, 1824 – February 4, 1904)